The CFA Plans to Add Crypto and Block-chain Topics to Their Curriculum Starting 2019

The financial industry appears to be taking a serious interest in crypto after the CFA Institute which offers the chartered financial analyst designation made the decision to add crypto-currencies and topics to do with the block-chain in their level I and level II curriculums. The institute which offers the financial analyst designation which is a three level program intends to effect the changes in their level I and level II curriculums beginning 2019 with the material for the exams to be made available by August of the same year. Crypto seems to be making grand headway in the financial industry with finance being increasingly integrated with crypto.

Indicators of a crypto penetration into the financial industry are seen in the trading house of Chicago’s decision to support the trading of Bitcoin futures as well financial giants Goldman Sachs Inc. part from the two finance houses, other wall-street professionals are increasingly taking to crypto and the block-chain. Despite interest from major financial players, crypto-currencies have taken a beating in 2018 compared to the glory days of 2017 which are fast becoming a distant memory. Though crypto-currencies have had a rough time in the markets this year, many observers are of the view that these technologies have great potential to bring about positive lasting changes in the global financial system.

The CFA institute’s managing director of curriculum and general education, Stephen Horan, believes that crypto-currencies and the block-chain as a whole are not a passing fad as skeptics might claim or believe. At the CFA Institute, curriculum material to do with the block-chain and crypto-currency will be available alongside material about other Fintech topics such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and automated trading. Curriculum MD at the CFA Institute also added that intersectional material that combined crypto and economics could be ultimately included in the curriculum as well. Crypto and traditional finance began to be integrated since the crypto boom of last year.

The news from the CFA about an imminent change in the curriculum has excited a lot of people who are interested in the topic. One of them is 27-year old, Kayden Lee, who sat the CFA level I paper last month and is currently an intern fund analyst. He expressed delight in the CFA institute’s decision adding that the move will help him and others like him understand crypto-currencies better. He also noted that the curriculum’s focus centered on how block-chain and Fintech unravel or disrupt financial sectors.

The topics in the CFA curriculum will fall under the institute’s readings on professional ethics which most feel is quite needed in the crypto industry owing to the fact that most projects in the crypto world operate in a turbulent legal environment. A lot of ICO’s have also been linked to scams and money laundering rings. A record 227,031 students from 91 different nations and territories have registered for the June exams with most of them being from Asia, which is understandable owing to the fact that the continent interacts with crypto the most.